Best Bread Pudding

As an expression of their Japanese and Jewish heritages, chef-owners Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel bake their daily challah with sake kasu, a by-product of sake production often used in Japanese cooking. What to do with the leftover loaves? Bread pudding was the obvious answer. Okochi soaks the challah in custard (which includes E. Guittard dark chocolate, ripened bananas, and Battenkill Valley Creamery milk and cream) overnight, and then bakes it “low and slow.” The result’s a dessert that’s soft and gooey on the inside, with a crispy exterior. It’s served piping hot between a spoonful of crème fraîche and a pool of whiskey-­caramel sauce.

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So what exactly does “best” mean in a city with thousands of pizza joints, hundreds of celebrity masseuses, and museum-worthy concept shops on every corner? Well, in the case of this, our annual “Best of New York” roundup, there’s a heavy emphasis on what’s new or what has somehow remained virtually unheard of (until now, of course).